Age of Mammuthus trogontherii from Kostolac, Serbia, and the entry of megaherbivores into Europe during the Late Matuyama climate revolution

Abstract

At the Drmno open-pit coal mine near Kostolac in Serbia, a nearly complete skeleton of Mammuthus trogontherii (nicknamed Vika) was discovered in a fluvial deposit overlain by a loess–paleosol sequence where a second paleontological level named Nosak with remains of M. trogontherii was found. We studied the magnetostratigraphy of the Kostolac sedimentary sequence and found that the Vika layer dates to ~ 0.8 Ma, shortly before the Brunhes–Matuyama boundary. In addition, according to our age model and previously reported optically stimulated luminescence and electron spin resonance dates, the Nosak fossils have an estimated age of 0.19 Ma and lived during the earliest part of Marine Isotope Stage 6. It appears therefore that at Kostolac, M. trogontherii is preserved both at its earliest occurrence at ~ 0.8 Ma and close to its latest occurrence at 0.19 Ma, and may well have been present in between, albeit not yet found. We speculate that megaherbivores such as M. trogontherii entered Europe along a conjunct Danube–Po River migration conduit connecting western Asia-Levant with central-southern Europe where vast and exploitable ecosystems, particularly suited for steppe- or savanna-adapted megaherbivores from Asia and Africa, developed during the late early Pleistocene climate revolution at around 0.8 Ma.

Early hominins in Europe: The Galerian migration hypothesis

“…The oldest remains of M. trogontherii in Europe are from the Kostolac section in Serbia (Fig. 1) (Lister et al, 2012) in levels currently dated to~0.8 Ma, shortly before the BrunheseMatuyama boundary (Muttoni et al, 2015b; see also below) ( Fig. 14).…”

“…The Galerian migration hypothesis posits that MIS 22 and the MIS 22/21 transition during the EPT represents the first window of opportunity for hominins and large mammals to expand into Europe across the conjunct Po-Danube conduit that became fully emergent and terrestrial during MIS 22 at~0.9 Ma. polarity sequence interpreted as a record across the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary (Muttoni et al, 2015b). The Vika layer was traced to just below the BrunheseMatuyama boundary at a nominal age of~0.8 Ma (Fig.…”

An early Brunhes (<0.78 Ma) age for the Lower Paleolithic tool-bearing Kozarnika cave sediments, Bulgaria

“…(ii) As previously stated, the presence in most of the analyzed samples of a narrow grain size distribution in the silt range indicates loess as a dominant textural component in the Kozarnika sedimentary infill down at least to Layers 13aec (layers below are alluvial in origin). The Kozarnika cave is located at the south-western margin of the Bulgarian lower Danube loess belt (Haase et al, 2007;Buggle et al, 2009Buggle et al, , 2013 where loess deposition generally started sometime between the Jaramillo Subchron (0.99 Ma) and the Brun-heseMatuyama boundary (0.78 Ma) (Sartori et al, 1999;Jordanova et al, 2008;Fitzsimmons et al, 2012;Markovi c et al, 2012Markovi c et al, , 2015Muttoni et al, 2015). This age window (0.78e0.99 Ma) thus represents a maximum likely age of onset of loess accumulation in the Kozarnika cave, implying that the lowermost cave loess of Layers 13aec should not be older than 0.99 Ma, in agreement with our magnetostratigraphic interpretation indicating that these layers are younger than 0.78 Ma ( Fig.…”

“…This age revision brings Kozarnika into better agreement with a recent critical reviews indicating that the earliest main peopling of Europe occurred in a chronological window comprised between the top of the Jaramillo subchron (0.99 Ma) and the BrunheseMatuyama boundary (0.78 Ma) (Muttoni et al, 2017; see also Muttoni et al, 2014). Although Kozarnika seems to have been first occupied at later times, the pre-Brunhes but post-Jaramillo time interval represents a prime target for surveys in search of additional sites in the Danube area with mammal immigrants from Asia and Africa (e.g., Kostolac, Serbia;Muttoni et al, 2015) possibly including early hominins.…”

Mammuthus meridionalis (Nesti, 1825) from Apollonia-1 (Mygdonia Basin, Northern Greece) and its importance within the Early Pleistocene mammoth evolution in Europe

“…The earliest secure occurrence of "true" M. trogontherii in Europe is pre-Brunhes and is traced at 0.8 Ma in Kostolac (Serbia) (Fig. 11;Lister et al 2012;Muttoni et al 2015). Of approximately similar age is also Dorn-Dürkheim 3 (Germany; Franzen et al 2000), whose sample includes both M. meridionalis and M. trogontherii due to reworking (Van Essen 2011).…”